Cham Says Dave Kelly’s ‘Showtime’ Is The ‘Greatest Dancehall Riddim Of All Time’
Dave ‘Rude Bwoy’ Kelly’s Showtime riddim, which spawned Dancehall hits such as Shaggy’s Hot Gyal, Beenie Man’s Hypocrite, Wayne Wonder’s Searching Dem Searching and Bounty Killer’s Eagle and the Hawk, is the greatest Dancehall riddim ever, according to international recording artist Cham.
Showtime, which was released in 1997, on Kelly’s Madhouse label also featured three songs from Cham, including Gallong Yah Gal. According to Cham, Kelly’s creativity and unconventional musical gymnastics in the making of the riddim, were the factors to which he attributed its greatness.
“The Showtime riddim to me, is the greatest riddim of all time,” Cham said in his video series celebrating his Wow…The Story album’s 21st anniversary of release.
“The biggest Dancehall riddim. Di reason why, is because Dave Kelly actually put a crowd from a soccer stadium in di riddim di riddim itself going “ahhh” and den yuh have di odda voices going saying “hey’ and dat’s how di whole idea of Showtime came about. Because it is really Showtime when you hear di crowd noise, yuh feel like it’s time to just explode, on the stage,” the 42-year-old said.
Cham also explained the reasoning behind the intro to the song Gallong Yah Gyal, which was released on Wow… The Story being done in a manner akin to him being called onto a stage to perform.
“At dat time, I had released three or four or five number one songs, but my name wasn’t called in none of these songs. So you had fans out there who were singing the songs. They were number one songs but no one knew who I was. I didn’t have any music videos, none a dat,” he explained.
“So my thing was that the next song that I was going to put out, I was going to make sure my name is called in the song. And that’s how we came up with the idea: ‘Showtime, we present onstage out of Sherlock Crescent signed by the Mad People gang, Baby Cham!’”
Days ago, Cham announced that he was in celebration mode as he was marking the 21st anniversary of his debut album, Wow…The Story, which he released at age 21, and which was the first double CD album in Reggae and Dancehall history.
The entertainer told his fans that he would be sharing highlights of the history of the album, which was released on 24 October 2000 and peaked at number five on the Billboard Reggae Albums Chart on November 17 that year.
All but one of the songs on the album were produced by Dave Kelly, the exception being Desperate Measures which was produced by his older brother Tony Kelly.
The first disc number one on the album comprised The Mass, Many Many, Que Sera/Hottie Hottie Crew, Funny Man, Gallong Yah Gal/We No Sorry, Boom/Can I Get A, Boom Tune, Ghetto Pledge, Babylon Bwoy, Ma People and Man and Man.
Disc two comprised Who, Heading to the Top, On A Roll, Flossing every Day, More featuring Foxy Brown, No, High Rollers featuring Shaggy, Smooth Operator featuring Mr. Easy, Another Level featuring Bounty Killer and Mama’s Teaching.
Cham got his musical break in the summer of 1995 when he made his debut on Kelly’s iconic Stink Riddim which was released in 1996. He went on to, over the years, record an extensive list of hits for Kelly including Ghetto Story, Ghetto Pledge, More Wood, Many Many, Gallang Yah Gal, Hottie Hottie Crew, Vitamin S, and Another Level.
Cham and Kelly also co-wrote songs for some of the biggest names in Dancehall, among them Bounty Killer’s Look and Beenie Man’s Old Dog.